


Hamster in Kazakh is Still Hamster

by mousapelli



Series: This is Otabek's Hamster [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Hamsters, Otabek fails at the internet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-09 18:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8906101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mousapelli/pseuds/mousapelli
Summary: Otabek has a hamster. Yuri regrets teaching him how to use instagram.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Shiritori Sonic over at http://writetomyheart.livejournal.com . I can't remember how this started but yesterday on twitter we decided that Otabek had to have a hamster and it would be cuter than life and it turns out hamsters are endemic to Kazakhstan in the first place, so. 
> 
> Otabek's hamster: http://www.bat-rodents.eu/cms/batrodentsen/products/hlodavci/krecek-dzungarsky-6.jpg

Otabek is terrible with his phone (and social media and the internet) but the black blob he sends Yuri a picture of with no explanation is even worse than usual. Yuri turns his phone left, then right. It's still a blob. 

[the fuck is that?] he asks. 

[It's my hamster] comes the prompt response, as if Otabek has been sitting there waiting expressly for Yuri's answer. Yuri clicks the picture again and it sort of makes more sense now that he understands it's furriness he's looking at instead of the blur of Otabek's shitty photography skills. 

The next picture is better, the blob resolving itself into two bright eyes, two little bitty ears, and long whiskers. The hamster is entirely black, is the issue, except for the little pink paw sticking out from under it. Yuri abruptly realizes the first time Otabek had sent a picture of the hamster's butt. 

[dont send me pics of ur hamster butt!!] Yuri protests, making a noise of irritation. 

[I wasn't trying to. It moved. Hamsters do not like selfies.]

"You two will get along great then, won't you?" Yuri snarls at the phone as he types back [since when do u have a ham star] and then [hamster fuck you autocorrect]. 

"Otabek?" Yuuri asks, leaning to look over Yuri's shoulder. Yuri clicks the picture because it seems like the fastest way to get Yuuri off his back and back to peeling the apple they're supposed to be snacking on. He is not expecting Yuuri to make a noise so high-pitched that Makkachin lifts his head. 

"CUTE," Yuuri exclaims with a bizarre amount of enthusiasm, in Yuri's opinion. "What's its name?"

[whats its name] Yuri types grudgingly. 

[Mishka] is the answer, of fucking course, which Yuri repeats for Yuuri's sake because he's still too dumb to sound out half the Cyrillic letters right. "It means little bear." It's a disgustingly cute name for Otabek's disgustingly adorable hamster. Yuri pictures stoic, straight-faced Otabek with the hamster calmly sitting on his head and throws up in his mouth a little. 

Yuuri is blathering something incomprehensible, half in Japanese, and Yuri eyes him coldly until Yuuri catches himself and repeats. 

"Have to show Phichit, he'll _die_ ," Yuuri says. "Send me…no wait, can you just instagram that, it's faster."

"He can do it himself," Yuri grumbles, which is true assuming Otabek hasn't deleted the app, but Yuri spent a very painful weekend in Almaty forcing him to learn how, so he better fucking not have. [instagram the furball, katsudon wants to show chulanont]

There's a long pause, and then [all right. I think.]

"It's up," Yuri says, not offering anymore help than that. Yuuri is already digging it up with efficient flicks of his fingers as he scrolls to Yuri's last post, clicks through to dig up Otabek's, and links Phichit, all before Yuri can distractedly scroll down to the post himself. 

The caption on it reads just "This is my hamster." By the time Yuri rolls his eyes, it already has three likes and a reply from Yuuri ("CUTE (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧"), and a split-second later there's one from Phichit which is basically incoherent screaming. 

Yuri also clicks to like. He feels obligated. Because they are friends. It's not because he likes the hamster. 

"I didn't even know they had hamsters in Kazakhstan!" Yuuri is saying, still happily blathering away at the same time he's typing away on his phone, and none of this is getting Yuri his apple slices any faster. Fuck Japanese hospitality. He's telling Yuuri's mother on him. "Hey, Phichit wants to know if you think it would be already for him to friend him."

[chulanont wants to know] Yuri starts typing and then stops because this is fucking ridiculous. "What the fuck are you asking me for?! Ask him! Tell your weirdo hamster friend to ask him himself! Do those two even have a language in common?"

Yuuri opens his mouth, pauses, then closes it with a frown and goes back to texting furiously. 

[I think Chulanont has just asked if we can be friends. Is that all right? I believe he just wants to talk about hamsters.]

[I DONT CARE] Yuri sends back, and then he tosses his phone halfway across the tatami because he's entirely done with every part of this experience. 

"Awwww, he posted another one!" Yuuri exclaims, sticking his phone in Yuri's face despite Yuri's fierce glare and the fact that he obviously just threw his own phone across the room. "I should friend him too."

"Don't get used to it, he instagrams like twice a year," Yuri informs Yuuri before he gives in and just looks at the screen. That fucking hamster is so cute it should die. 

"This is my hamster," this one reads. "It is eating a seed."

Yuri flops over on his stomach and starts crawling for his phone because for fuck's sake somebody has to teach Otabek how to tag properly, ugh. 

"Oops," Yuuri says suddenly, and Yuri doesn't even have time to ask what before they both hear Victor's squeal of pure delight from halfway across the Katsuki family home. 

Yuri wrinkles his nose up fiercely and tells Otabek [this is all ur fault].


	2. Hamster in Russian is Not Hamster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otabek brings the hamster when he moves to St. Petersburg, obviously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More silly junk for shiritori, but it didn't seem like it was worth it to post on its own. Also apparently exists in the same universe as "Press 1 for More Options," where Yuri's cat ends up on Skype with Otabek, and "4,752 Kilometers," where Otabek is driving the long way to move in with Yuri for the summer.

Out of all the things Otabek had brought to move in with Yuri, the hamster was the most ridiculous in Yuri's opinion. 

"Be honest," Yuri said, eyeing the small bundle of black fur sitting calmly on Otabek's shoulder. "You drove the entire way here in a rented car just because you couldn't put the hamster on an airplane, didn't you?"

"It's not the only reason," Otabek answered, pressing his lips together like he did when he was trying not to smile. "Somebody had to bring practical apartment things. Somebody who owns more than one mug."

"You're Mr. Practicality, all right," Yuri grumbled. "You could have left that thing with your sister."

"Never." Otabek reached up to scoop the hamster off his shoulder and cupped it to his chest with one hand, scratching it behind the ears with the thumb and forefinger of his other hand. The hamster's whiskers twitched, but it was otherwise calm, comfortable in Otabek's hands. "If you came to Almaty for months, you wouldn't leave your cat." 

"That's not the same thing," Yuri started. Just then the cat showed up as if she knew they were talking about her, back arched and tail flicking back and forth as she sauntered over to Otabek and looked up at him expectantly. 

"Ah, come out to say hello at last?" Otabek asked, sinking down to his haunches to stroke the cat's back. She gave a satisfied _Mrrrrrr_. "I missed you too, princess."

"Watch it," Yuri reminded sharply as the cat noticed the hamster still cupped to Otabek's chest and leaned forward to sniff curiously. "She's gonna have him for a snack. She's always bringing me dead mice."

"She never would," Otabek said, then a firm, " _No_ ," just as the cat was reaching out with a paw. Giving Otabek a look, she put her paw back down. "Mishka is a friend, not food or a toy, understand?"

"She's not going to listen to that," Yuri said dismissively, which was exactly why the cat sniffed the hamster delicately and then turned her head away as if entirely uninterested. "Ugh, you traitor."

"That's my girl," Otabek praised, ignoring Yuri's jealous huff. Another pass of Otabek's hand and she flopped on her side, showing her belly. "Nice to see one of my flatmates doesn't hesitate to show her feelings."

"That's because she's a harlot." Yuri nudged at Otabek's hip with his foot, trying to overbalance him, but Otabek was like a rock, solid and low-centered. Otabek was also ruffling the cat's belly fur, making her purr like a jet engine, obviously ignoring Yuri just to make him crazy. "I didn't ask you to move in just so you could seduce my cat, you know."

Otabek looked over his shoulder just long enough for Yuri to see the edge of his smirk, and that was when Yuri belatedly remembered: Otabek thought it was adorable when Yuri's jealousy showed. So he was only digging his own grave deeper. Instead of arguing further, Yuri crouched down beside Otabek and snapped a picture, angled so that Otabek's hand cupped around the hamster was in the foreground, the cat's disinterested stare just behind. 

[introducing the pets #thisismycat #itiseatingbekashamster] Yuri hit post, marginally satisfied. 

"Fuck off," Otabek said, reading over his shoulder and rolling his eyes at Yuri's jab about his inability to caption his hamster with any sort of decent tags. 

"What?" Yuri asked, making his eyes big and innocent. 

Otabek casually shoved Yuri, tipping him over with a yelp onto his ass. Somehow he had his phone already out, like a magician, and Yuri scowled as he heard the click of the camera.

[This is my boyfriend.] Otabek's SNS read ten seconds later. [He'll be eating my dust at practice tomorrow.]


End file.
